[Proposal] Inuit Civilization

T

TJDowling

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I would like to propose creating an Inuit Civilization. The Inuit are a truly unique indigenous civilization in Canada and in the world. They have a long history spanning a millennium and the Inuit have never been conquered. Inuit territory has been ceded as Greenland was to Denmark in 1814 and their territory was obviously absorbed by Canada as well but the Inuit have enjoyed relative freedom for their entire existence due in large part to the remoteness and hostility of their location. Not only have they not been conquered, only having had their territory ceded. They are also among some of the most politically active indigenous groups in the world today having created the semi-autonomous territory of Nunavut in Canada which spans vast swaths of the Arctic. There are additional autonomous Inuit zones throughout the Canadian North.

Traders, hunters and explorers by nature the Inuit emerged from Western Alaska in 1000AD and quickly spread across the Arctic supplanting the local Dorset, Innu and Norse cultures. They came into conflict with the Chippewan, Dene and Cree to the south but have always maintained control over their domain.

There are many arguments against adding the Inuit. Why them and not the Iroquois or the Cree or the Navajo? Historically speaking, the Inuit do not have a unified polity (at least until the modern era), they are comprised of many distant groups speaking with similar languages and traditions but not controlled under a singular capital. I think the case for the Inuit is that they are so distinct in geography and culture from the surrounding peoples when you compare with the other indigenous civilizations. Other civilizations had so much over-lap with other small indigenous civilizations in very minute geographic spaces making inclusion of one difficult at the expense of all others.

The Inuit can exist in the game without interfering too much with the mechanics because they inhabit a space that is relatively untouched by the AI. There have never been many Inuit and they exist in very unproductive regions but I think this could be an interesting scenario with the Inuits UP, UU and UB geared towards UHVs that would be challenging. An Arctic scenario would be truly unique

I don't think it's necessary to add to DoC but perhaps it could be added to or made into a mod-mod. At present I'm not super keen on doing the code work as I am code-illiterate but I can do research and create maps (I'm already in the process of creating a map of indigenous placenames in Canada which would serve this project well).

Inuit civilization:
Starting date: 1100AD in Western Alaska

Leader: Unknown (Not sure if there are any historic or legendary Inuit leaders, worst-case scenario we could choose a modern Inuit leader or some kind of Inuit everyman)

UU: Dog sled (replaces settler) - can travel on sea ice, +2 movement on ice/tundra, can settle on ice terrain, +50% attack against melee units (A settler with combat ability as Inuit combat/melee units will be quite limited by resources, not sure if movement on sea ice is feasible but it seems appropriate) (values negotiable)

UB: Igloo (replaces granary) sea ice, ice and tundra yield +1 food (this represents the Inuit hunting tradition and would give a little food to settlements without inflating the population too much)

UP: Power of Inuksuk trade routes/resources require no roads, the Inuit navigated their trade and hunting routes using Inuksuk rock sculptures which helped mark their paths, on the ice and tundra they had no need for roads.

UHV 1: Settle Kivalliq (Hudson Bay), Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island) and Nunavik (Quebec) by 1300AD the historic time it took for the Inuit to reach its current extent
UHV 2: Acquire 3 fur, 2 deer and 3 whale resources by 1700AD (values negotiable)
UHV 3: Don't lose a settlement until 1800AD (when Greenland was ceded to Denmark)

Alternative UHV could be conquer a European settlement (like Greenland) which would be very challenging

I don't imagine UHV1 would be challenging especially with dog sleds capable of travelling on sea ice. UHV 2 could be made quite challenging with the right values. UHV 3 might require the AI to be a bit more interested in the Arctic.

Anyway, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, interest welcome. Maybe this is a dumb idea, but I think it's cool.

EDIT: Perhaps to make UHV 1 more challenging there could be a geographic limit on dog sleds. So that they cannot enter terrain below a certain latitude (James Bay being the limit). That way they can't just send a dogsled around Hudson Bay to colonize Nunavik, they will have to build a boat (or as the Inuit call it Umiak) and sail from Greenland or Baffin Island. This is both practical and accurate as dog sleds aren't much use on sub-Arctic terrain.

Additionally, some changes will need to be made to prevent early contact at the Bering Strait if dog sleds will be able to traverse sea ice. Also, I'd guess some resources would need to be added, whale, fur, deer but obviously not so many or so easily accessible as to make UHV2 easy or to overpower the Inuit. Historically, the Inuit's strength comes from isolation and ingenuity not resource wealth or population.
 
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That's really creative! Some very minor thoughts to contribute to the creative process:
- Qamutik could be a good name for the UU.
- I don't like that they could settle all ice terrain, I'd rather say only tundra terrain (we could rework the map to only allow certain locations).
- About the UB: having +1 food on ice and tundra would allow cities just everywhere. What +1 food for mammal resources (deer, fur, whale) and for the city square itself? Alternatively, +1 food and +1 hammer for mammals could be interesting.
- The inuksuk could also be an interesting UB if someone can think of something cool for it... although but I'm not fond of it replacing the monument (too many UBs do that) and the food-boosting seems relevant for them to keep the igloo.
- Maybe a UHV related to diplomacy (and environmentalist or civil rights) in the 20th/21st century, representing the role of the Inuit Circumpolar Council?
 
ozqar said:
That's really creative! Some very minor thoughts to contribute to the creative process:
- Qamutik could be a good name for the UU.
- I don't like that they could settle all ice terrain, I'd rather say only tundra terrain (we could rework the map to only allow certain locations).
- About the UB: having +1 food on ice and tundra would allow cities just everywhere. What +1 food for mammal resources (deer, fur, whale) and for the city square itself? Alternatively, +1 food and +1 hammer for mammals could be interesting.
- The inuksuk could also be an interesting UB if someone can think of something cool for it... although but I'm not fond of it replacing the monument (too many UBs do that) and the food-boosting seems relevant for them to keep the igloo.
- Maybe a UHV related to diplomacy (and environmentalist or civil rights) in the 20th/21st century, representing the role of the Inuit Circumpolar Council?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I definitely thought of inuksuk for the UB but same reservations about replacing the monument as well as it being redundant if the UP is the Power of Inuksuk. I'm open to other UBs and UUs if anyone knows better, but this UU seems good especially with the name you provided

Plus food/production for mammal resources might be a better choice you're right but definitely would have to rework resource distribution in the North in order to make enough settlements viable to make the scenario worthwhile. Would also represent very well how thorough the Inuit are using the animal parts. All edible parts are consumed as food medicine, bones are tools/trinkets, skin made into clothes and boats. Could rework so that tundra is strategically placed as well for appropriate settlements.

Late-game UHV related to diplomacy could be cool especially considering how important they are in the Arctic and indigenous movement globally today. Maybe it could replace the resource one. As a simple resource one would maybe be too easy/redundant with the settle UHV if it's all local resources or too difficult if they are foreign resources.
 
Really cool idea! I'm not sure about having them start in western Alaska though. I'm not super familiar with Inuit history, but today they live in the eastern Canadian arctic and Greenland. Th western arctic has different people like the Dene, and if you Alaska has yet more peoples. Check out this website: https://native-land.ca/

Love the idea though. Whether or not it's a good fit for the main mod, a mod mod would be interesting. And I definitely want to see more indigenous nations in the main mod.
 
MechatronicJazz said:
Really cool idea! I'm not sure about having them start in western Alaska though. I'm not super familiar with Inuit history, but today they live in the eastern Canadian arctic and Greenland. Th western arctic has different people like the Dene, and if you Alaska has yet more peoples. Check out this website: https://native-land.ca/

Love the idea though. Whether or not it's a good fit for the main mod, a mod mod would be interesting. And I definitely want to see more indigenous nations in the main mod.
Click to expand...
I guess the theory is they came from Western or Northwestern Alaska and came to settle predominantly in the Eastern Arctic. The Aleut and Yupik of Western Alaska are closely related to Inuit but not considered Inuit. The Inupiatun that cover Northernwestern Alaska and Northern Yukon are referred to as the "Alaska Inuit". The Dene as I understand are south of the Arctic coast. But yeah, I would think maybe their spawn point is Northwestern Alaska but there should more incentive to found the first or second settlement further East, with the movement bonus of the Qamutik settler they wouldn't be at too unrealistic.
 
This is really interesting. I see them as a close parallel to the Polynesians, as a more player only oriented experience where the goals are about settling an unusual terrain that is less accessible to usual civs. For the same reasons their starting location depends on when in their timeline their game begins, just like Polynesia starts in Tonga/Samoa and not in Taiwan where they are thought to have originally originated.

It's also nice to have an indigenous counterpart to Canada in their north. With the expanded map. it becomes less feasible for Canada itself to cover all this territory, and given their relation to the Canadian state and the relatively (militarily) conflict free history it would make sense for the Inuit to end up as a Canadian vassal. In this case the Canadian goal could be expanded to allow vassal cities and count their territory as well.

On the other hand, while I like the idea for this civ, it kind of feels wrong to have the Inuit as the first indigenous North American civilisation before more iconic examples such as the Iroquois or Sioux.
 
It's more like a web of dependencies. Inuit cannot come before other Amerindian civs cannot come before a larger map, different civ spawn rules and mechanics specific for Amerindian civs.
 
Leoreth said:
It's more like a web of dependencies. Inuit cannot come before other Amerindian civs cannot come before a larger map, different civ spawn rules and mechanics specific for Amerindian civs.
Click to expand...

Mechanics-related: Perhaps tiles outside of culture that have improvements could lose them over time? That would allow for Harappa-like collapses (where all its cities are razed) of civs in regions with a major cultural discontinuity. Then, having native american civs wouldn't lead to the Americas being too developed come colonization.
 
Preferably their settlements could devolve to something else without need for military conflict, if tribal villages are changes so they are not just treasure chests that would be an appropriate representation. Also, I think the best way to model these civs is to remove access to roads and most improvements.
 
Leoreth said:
On the other hand, while I like the idea for this civ, it kind of feels wrong to have the Inuit as the first indigenous North American civilization before more iconic examples such as the Iroquois or Sioux.
Click to expand...

au contraire mon frère, I'd argue that unlike the Iroquois and the Sioux, this civ requires less scripting and less map changes, so it makes sense that a less resource intensive civ would be added first. Speaking of resources, there is dumanios's Inuit models: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-inuit-by-dumanios.476738/
 
Leoreth said:
This is really interesting. I see them as a close parallel to the Polynesians, as a more player only oriented experience where the goals are about settling an unusual terrain that is less accessible to usual civs. For the same reasons their starting location depends on when in their timeline their game begins, just like Polynesia starts in Tonga/Samoa and not in Taiwan where they are thought to have originally originated.

It's also nice to have an indigenous counterpart to Canada in their north. With the expanded map. it becomes less feasible for Canada itself to cover all this territory, and given their relation to the Canadian state and the relatively (militarily) conflict free history it would make sense for the Inuit to end up as a Canadian vassal. In this case the Canadian goal could be expanded to allow vassal cities and count their territory as well.

On the other hand, while I like the idea for this civ, it kind of feels wrong to have the Inuit as the first indigenous North American civilisation before more iconic examples such as the Iroquois or Sioux.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I definitely had Polynesia in mind thinking of this civ. They'll never be dominant and a non-player controlled Inuit civ would certainly collapse or become a vassal. Probably a more appropriate starting point would be around the Northwest Territories or the Western part of Nunanvut giving room to simulate their eastward expansion across the Arctic without having their center be on the Bering Strait.

I also agree I would like to see the Iroquois and Sioux represented as a priority due to historic importance. That said, I always assumed that their inclusion would be a mechanical nightmare with Canada/America (to be fair, their historic situation has been a political nightmare with America/Canada). On the other hand the Inuit can exist relatively free of any major problems game mechanics-wise.

EDIT:
au contraire mon frère, I'd argue that unlike the Iroquois and the Sioux, this civ requires less scripting and less map changes, so it makes sense that a less resource intensive civ would be added first. Speaking of resources, there is dumanios's Inuit models: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-inuit-by-dumanios.476738/
Click to expand...
Awesome find by the way! A little uncomfortable with how naked some of these Arctic dwellers are but that could be worked with. The galley model is great. I was thinking of Aua as leaderhead as well. He is one of the older figures that we know about and although the medicinemen/women weren't strictly speaking the leaders of their communities they were certainly revered.

Also I wonder if it would be possible to piece the wolf graphic together with some kind of modified chariot that looks like a sled. But again, I'm not very knowledgeable on this stuff.
 
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TJDowling said:
I would like to propose creating an Inuit Civilization. The Inuit are a truly unique indigenous civilization in Canada and in the world. They have a long history spanning a millennium and the Inuit have never been conquered. Inuit territory has been ceded as Greenland was to Denmark in 1814 and their territory was obviously absorbed by Canada as well but the Inuit have enjoyed relative freedom for their entire existence due in large part to the remoteness and hostility of their location. Not only have they not been conquered, only having had their territory ceded. They are also among some of the most politically active indigenous groups in the world today having created the semi-autonomous territory of Nunavut in Canada which spans vast swaths of the Arctic. There are additional autonomous Inuit zones throughout the Canadian North.

Traders, hunters and explorers by nature the Inuit emerged from Western Alaska in 1000AD and quickly spread across the Arctic supplanting the local Dorset, Innu and Norse cultures. They came into conflict with the Chippewan, Dene and Cree to the south but have always maintained control over their domain.

There are many arguments against adding the Inuit. Why them and not the Iroquois or the Cree or the Navajo? Historically speaking, the Inuit do not have a unified polity (at least until the modern era), they are comprised of many distant groups speaking with similar languages and traditions but not controlled under a singular capital. I think the case for the Inuit is that they are so distinct in geography and culture from the surrounding peoples when you compare with the other indigenous civilizations. Other civilizations had so much over-lap with other small indigenous civilizations in very minute geographic spaces making inclusion of one difficult at the expense of all others.

The Inuit can exist in the game without interfering too much with the mechanics because they inhabit a space that is relatively untouched by the AI. There have never been many Inuit and they exist in very unproductive regions but I think this could be an interesting scenario with the Inuits UP, UU and UB geared towards UHVs that would be challenging. An Arctic scenario would be truly unique

I don't think it's necessary to add to DoC but perhaps it could be added to or made into a mod-mod. At present I'm not super keen on doing the code work as I am code-illiterate but I can do research and create maps (I'm already in the process of creating a map of indigenous placenames in Canada which would serve this project well).

Inuit civilization:
Starting date: 1100AD in Western Alaska

Leader: Unknown (Not sure if there are any historic or legendary Inuit leaders, worst-case scenario we could choose a modern Inuit leader or some kind of Inuit everyman)

UU: Dog sled (replaces settler) - can travel on sea ice, +2 movement on ice/tundra, can settle on ice terrain, +50% attack against melee units (A settler with combat ability as Inuit combat/melee units will be quite limited by resources, not sure if movement on sea ice is feasible but it seems appropriate) (values negotiable)

UB: Igloo (replaces granary) sea ice, ice and tundra yield +1 food (this represents the Inuit hunting tradition and would give a little food to settlements without inflating the population too much)

UP: Power of Inuksuk trade routes/resources require no roads, the Inuit navigated their trade and hunting routes using Inuksuk rock sculptures which helped mark their paths, on the ice and tundra they had no need for roads.

UHV 1: Settle Kivalliq (Hudson Bay), Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island) and Nunavik (Quebec) by 1300AD the historic time it took for the Inuit to reach its current extent
UHV 2: Acquire 3 fur, 2 deer and 3 whale resources by 1700AD (values negotiable)
UHV 3: Don't lose a settlement until 1800AD (when Greenland was ceded to Denmark)

Alternative UHV could be conquer a European settlement (like Greenland) which would be very challenging

I don't imagine UHV1 would be challenging especially with dog sleds capable of travelling on sea ice. UHV 2 could be made quite challenging with the right values. UHV 3 might require the AI to be a bit more interested in the Arctic.

Anyway, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, interest welcome. Maybe this is a dumb idea, but I think it's cool.

EDIT: Perhaps to make UHV 1 more challenging there could be a geographic limit on dog sleds. So that they cannot enter terrain below a certain latitude (James Bay being the limit). That way they can't just send a dogsled around Hudson Bay to colonize Nunavik, they will have to build a boat (or as the Inuit call it Umiak) and sail from Greenland or Baffin Island. This is both practical and accurate as dog sleds aren't much use on sub-Arctic terrain.

Additionally, some changes will need to be made to prevent early contact at the Bering Strait if dog sleds will be able to traverse sea ice. Also, I'd guess some resources would need to be added, whale, fur, deer but obviously not so many or so easily accessible as to make UHV2 easy or to overpower the Inuit. Historically, the Inuit's strength comes from isolation and ingenuity not resource wealth or population.
Click to expand...
I mean, the fact that there every map I've seen says "CANADA" in big bold letters would apply some conquering, but I get your overall point.
 
HighFunctioningAlcoholic said:
I mean, the fact that there every map I've seen says "CANADA" in big bold letters would apply some conquering, but I get your overall point.
Click to expand...
conquer:
overcome and take control of (a place or people) by military force

I forget, when was the Battle of Iqaluit again?
 
Remind me, I've only played the original Colonization and that's a long time ago.
 
The native americans cultural borders are fully passable and can not be seen by colonizing civs. You can also settle inside their borders, but this will give you the options to not settle, buy the plots for some gold or seize them, angering the natives. They can't build the normal buildings or produce normal units either, but this is mostly due to them not being playable. Maybe giving them special scouts that can harvest small amouts of production, food and gold instead of building improvements would work?
 
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